QMumbai: 40,000 Cops Deployed for Dahi Handi Celebrations & More

At least 40,000 police personnel have been deployed to keep the city safe as it celebrates Dahi Handi on Saturday.

Pranay Ashok, deputy commissioner of police and spokesperson of Mumbai police, said, “All units, including the traffic, state reserve police force, quick response team, rapid action force, bomb disposal and detection squad, home guard and the crime branch, will be part of the patrolling team. Police teams, including women officials, will be present at crowded spots in plainclothes.”

More than 5,000 CCTV cameras across the city and suburbs will also help the Mumbai police in monitoring the situation as well as traffic movement, said a police officer.

Controversial paver blocks are set to make a comeback on Mumbai’s roads. Back-tracking on its earlier decision to bar the use of paver blocks, the BMC is set to use them on road patches, which have underground utilities.

The instruction was issued by Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi on August 21, when a joint meeting of all department officials and contractors was organised to check the status of major projects.

“The absence of paver blocks creates a bigger problem. We need paver blocks on parts of roads that have underground pipelines and where rain water accumulates. If there is a utility under a road and it has a tar surface, we have to dig up the road. But in case of paver blocks, it is much easier. We can remove the paver blocks and once work is completed, they can be relaid again without damaging the road,” Pardeshi said.

3. FIR Against 3 Developers for Destroying Mangroves, Encroaching on Govt Land

Bhayander police has registered an FIR against three developers for allegedly destroying mangrove cover in Morwa village and encroaching on government land.

The Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation had lodged the FIR against developers Pintu Singh, Jaywant Kini and Jitendra Kini and demolished constructions that had come up in the village with a mangrove cover, officials said.

“The three developers had employed JCB machines and had cleared land from mangroves in Morwa and Rai villages. They had begun constructing a building on the government land in Morwa,” the complaint read.

“We haven’t made any arrests yet, but the trio was involved in encroaching on the land in these villages and we have booked them for encroachment, destroying mangroves and cheating. The corporation has demolished the constructions that had come up and we are going to ensure that construction work doesn’t start again,” a senior police officer said.

Special trains introduced on CR will be operated mainly on LTT-Pernem, Panvel-Thivim, Pune-Karmali-Panvel, Panvel-Sawantwadi Road-Panvel, CSMT-Sawantwadi Road and CSMT-Ratnagiri routes. Special trains that will be operated by WR during Ganesh Chaturthi will run on Mumbai Central-Thivim, Ahmedabad-Sawantwadi Road-Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad-Thivim-Ahmedabad, Vadodara-Sawantwadi-Vadodara and Mumbai Central-Mangalore-Mumbai Central routes.

Labour unions of the transport wing of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) could soon go on a strike as an action committee of the unions conducted a strike ballot on Friday. The unions want the BEST management to sign a new wage agreement immediately.

Apart from few depots such as Wadala, Gorai, Goregaon, among others, the ballot process was peaceful at 26 BEST depots. After the process was over, the action committee — BEST Sanyukta Kamagar Kruti Samiti — said that depending upon the ballot result, they will announce the future course of action. “In the workers’ gathering at Parel on Saturday, we will announce our decision,” said union leader Shashank Rao. The committee has warned it will go on strike at any moment after the ballot result is out.